What separates Houston and Atlanta is luck and planning

There are so many missteps to the debacle that has been Atlanta’s transportation system over the past couple days, that it’s hard to draw conclusions on how they erred and how it can’t happen in Houston.

The sad truth is, it probably can. Officials just have to make sure it doesn’t. Let’s go over the basics:

A lot of snow hit the South, where people aren’t accustomed to snow and where cities aren’t exactly versed in winter weather emergency plans.

Rather than do what Houston normally does in these occasions and have politicians and pundits alike say “BARRICADE YOUR DOORS, DO NOT OPEN THEM FOR ANY REASON. WINTER IS COMING. SHIELD YOURSELF FROM GEORGE R.R. MARTIN. GET TO H-E-B AS QUICK AS YOU CAN AND GRAB MILK AND BREAD AND THEN RETURN HOME UNTIL WE GIVE THE ALL-CLEAR. WINTER IS COMING!!!!!!! RELEASE THE JJ WATT-KRAKEN!!!!!” Atlanta and Georgia chose to take a laid back approach. They didn’t cancel, they waited. According to accounts, they didn’t want to cry wolf.

They should have yelled “wolf” a lot. When it became clear Tuesday morning that the city was snowed, it was too late. Calling for the mass evacuation actually sent people piling onto the streets, and piling on the accidents. More than 2,000 cars were abandoned on the roads. By that time in Houston, we’d have Twitter pictures of officials in polo shirts sternly looking at weather forecasts and monitors in the emergency operations command module disaster center.

A good Samaritan on a four-wheeler patrols Interstate 75 south after a winter snow storm Jan. 29. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal said early Wednesday that the National Guard was sending military Humvees onto Atlanta’s snarled freeway system in an attempt to move stranded school buses and get food and water to people. AP Photo/David Tulis

From there, it’s Katie Bar the Door. Chaos ensued, children were forced to sleep in schools while some folks found themselves stranded in drug stores, using feminine products for pillows. A city without substantial resources of snowplows and salt can’t dig its way out once it’s buried.

It’s foolish to think that can’t happen in Houston. We have people, we’re short on winter supplies and we have plenty of roads to clog. Dump 3″ of snow here that soon turns to ice and then have thousands hit the street and we’d probably break down, too.

What stops that is planning. Ounce of prevention rather than a pound of cure. It might look illogical when the weather doesn’t deteriorate, but it looks real smart when it does.

It also takes people not being cocky, but competent. There’s got to be some proficient 4X4 drivers in Atlanta who can help pull cars off the freeway to open it again. It shouldn’t take the National Guard to move two Camrys and a Windstar aside and go pick some kids up at school. If that’s the safest place for them, fine. But it seems a Jeep Club could have saved the day.